Islam-West divide 'grows deeper'

Category: Europe, World Affairs Topics: Denmark Views: 5147
5147

In September 2005l Jyllands-Posten, the conservative mass circulation daily, asked 40 illustrators to defy Islam's prohibition against depicting the Prophet. On Sept. 30, it published a dozen of their drawings.

Giving more fuel to the fire, several other European newspapers re-printed these cartoons.

Since then Muslims around the world have launched a protest against these depictions.

Addressing an international conference intended to promote dialogue between Western and Islamic thinkers, Mr. Abdullah Badawi, Prime Minister of Malaysia, said Islam and the West should stop demonizing each other, and try to curb extremism and promote moderation.

Mr. Badawi says a huge chasm has opened between the West and Islam, fuelled by Muslim frustrations over Western foreign policy.

Key figures from the UN, the EU and a prominent pan-Islamic body have jointly called for calm in the wake of outrage over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. 

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and his counterparts called the drawings offensive, but expressed alarm at the violent worldwide reaction to them.

The prime minister of Denmark, where the cartoons were first published, said they had led to a "global crisis".


Is the gap widening between Islam and the West?

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Jrgensen from Denmark says ..

I understand why the Muslim world hates Denmark. When I look in the newspaper, I find that journalists around the world did NOT do a good job investigating reliable sources of information, or explaining the situation properly. It is very complex and at the same time so very simple. Please read this if you want to try to understand what is going on in Denmark. I am terribly sorry about the situation, and I wish we could learn to understand each other better. I do not expect Muslims to understand Danish culture, but I ask you to try. I know it is not easy. More ..


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  Category: Europe, World Affairs
  Topics: Denmark
Views: 5147

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Older Comments:
EROL FROM TURKEY said:
Well... the moshrekins and the zionists have been demonizing Islam and oppressing muslims right from the beginning and they will not change. The whole world knows it is the west who is the aggressor , not muslim middle-east. Those who twisted corrupted edited God's scriptures, sticked shirk with it, slaughtered 75 prophets - God's wrath is on them and naturally those moshrekins and zionists will remain enemies of all prophets and God's unchanged truth - Islam. They will remain unjust hostile oppressors and aggressors against muslims and they will instantly become slaves of 'Dajjal' and they will form the army of al-dajjal against the army of mumenin(muslims) lead by our Prophet Jesus(peace be upon him) .
2006-02-14

AHMED ASGHER FROM BAHRAIN said:
So long as we have lower human qualities, we become flattered through praise and get hurt through criticism. It is time to move on from this station to a higher human station. A place where there is no wrong or right except the beauty of God where everything melts away before such wisdom and majesty. This place can only accept a smiling face with a heart full of love and compassion for all creation. It is the higher state of human soul where there is no hurt nor ego. Those who are near to this state understand it. Scorn and insult does not diminish their faith. Praise does not inflate their ego. In both cases they only smile.

25:63 And the servants of ((Allah)) Most Gracious are those who walk on the earth in humility, and when the ignorant address them, they say, "Peace!";

Praise be to the One who gives us this inner peace. Wa la yabqa illa wajhu rabuka thol jalal wal fatan. What a beautiful religion. Neither Allah nor Prophet Mohammad pbuh need my protection. It is I who need their protection. We all have the choice to serve God or our own ego. I am certain that God can look after Himself! It is I who can not do without HIM. Let's just smile brothers/sisters. It has a magic far beyond burning buildings!! Peace.
2006-02-13

TONY S FROM US said:
When a friend of mine came up to me at work and asked, "Why do you think the Muslims have over-reacted to the Danish cartoons?" I immediately responded that if the Danes were allowed to publish such cartoons in such a demeaning way of a Divine Prophet such as Mohammed (SWS), then why did they stop there? I added that if we, humans, were allowed to insult the very sacred messengers of the Creator, why can't we draw pictures of mothers sleeping with their sons, fathers with their daughters, sisters with their brothers, etc.? Besides, what is the role of school? Why can't we all abandon the very ethical behaviors we all have come to cherish as dignified human beings in order to express ourselves the way we want whether sexually, verbally, or in any other way? Will this be freedom of the so called Danish speech?

The Danish publishers and their French counterparts and the other so called "think tanks" ought to understand that God and his messengers must be left alone. It seems to me that so many Europeans have walked so far from religion that their lives are purely secular; therefore, their social morbidity and moral decadence has taken over the lives of millions of people. The direct result of all that is millions of teenagers addicted to alcohol, drugs, and sex. I am happy to see that so many millions of Muslims expressed their anger although I do not condone their violent acts. If Jesus, Moses, and Mohammed were alive today, they would have probably condemned such cartoons. After all, didn't they all stand against the incitement of hate and insults? The Danish publishers knew well that a deadly storm will erupt one way or the other. Otherwise, they were some of the most gullible and stupidest individuals alive. Where is European civility here? Or do they apply it when and where they want? The world is too smart for them. Enough of their sleazy attitude! Enough of their bullying, victimizing, and demonizing of the very people who showed them the way to civility!
2006-02-12

MARK OWENS FROM UK said:
and live for entirely different reasons. To us all that is important are our jobs and families (maybe) and an uninterrupted life style that truly is pure decadence. We wake up in the morning and wonder which cereal to eat and whether to use low fat milk or regular. In many Islamic countries, Muslims wake up and wonder if they will eat that day. This is not because their Islamic system is a failure, but certainly the lack of it. Our economics and policies have reduced these states to be entirely dependent on us and to ensure the status-quo, we have replaced their leaders with grubby, greasy, servile and violent leaders with fat bellies and money in their Swiss accounts, who act to maintain that state of misery and poverty. We shakle them with massive loans through the IMF and the World Bank, designed with abusive interest rates and penalties that perpetuate the poverty and economic depression. And if that does not work we invade and bomb their countries destroying innocent lives and infrastructure, only to force the vanquished to use us, the very people who destroyed their country to rebuild their shacks and villages burying them under further debt and poverty and misery. It is lost upon us that increasingly Muslims are coming back to their faith enmasse. They are opening their eyes to the ancient and wise message of their Prophet Mohammed, that transcends all ages and time. They do not live for worldly trappings. This fleeting world is not in their sights but the after-life is. Death is only a stage to a life of infinite happiness or misery depending upon your deeds in this world. Hence to die is easy for them; for us it is a catastrophe. Affluence and wealth do not compare to intense love they have for their Allah and their prophet. We will never understand that unless we respect and understand Islam and Muslims, and force ourselves to face the realities of our history, our policies and actions that have caused nothing but destruction, we will be doomed.
2006-02-12

MARK OWENS FROM UK said:
We now know that Muslims can act in unity, in tandem as a single force and that poses a delima for us in the West like we have never known before. We never imagined Muslims would ever unite on any issue and that was our ace in the hole. It was this assumption we had of Muslims thatfueled our foreign policies. There are now some seriously grave misconceptions we in the West have absolutely got to clear up about Islam and Muslims and I cannot stress enough our careless devil-may-care attitude, which only reinforces Muslim belief thatwe are arrogant, intolerant, ignorant and a racist lot to whom only those of the Judeo-Christian faith matter. This will be our undoing besides cause tremendous pain and suffering to all on both sides. Any assistance we give is not free. Every ounce of foreign aid is linked to economic and political concessions. Worst, our economic policies have forced them to mortgage their lands and their resources and now we even want them to compromise their very culture and religion to conform to ours. We wantto destroy their character too. Some common and fatal misconceptions, (1) Western style democracy is essential to Mideast paeace. But the true Islamic system has in fact worked quite well for Islamic societies and history is proof of that. (2) Change can be enforced on Muslims and Islam by money and if that does not work then by brute force. Their reaction will not just to hold back on oil and other resources, but if the dollar is kicked out, not just Americans, but the West can say goodbye to the decades of comfort and decadence we have enjoyed. (3) Muslims are an inferior people. This is one of the most prevanemt concepts we hold when nothing could be farther from the truth. Science, Mathematics and Arts would be not where it is without the tremendous Islamic contribution. Muslims hate Jews. It was not Christians who gave Jews shelter during the crusades or World War II it was the Muslims. The interesting truth is that Muslims do not live
2006-02-12

MOHAMMAD KHAN FROM USA said:
As Muslim protesters across the Middle East burned Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen in effigy this week, he insisted on Denmark's tolerance. "It's a false picture to portray us as an enemy of Islam," he said in an interview on Thursday.
But Muslim leaders have pointed out that such words fail to resonate when the government coalition includes the Danish People's Party, whose leaders have publicly compared Muslims to "cancer cells."
Read more :
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/international/europe/12denmark.html
2006-02-12

MR. KHAN FROM USA said:
Dear readers:
I have been watching in media- TV ,newspapers, radios talk show hosts etc. about the freedom of press and speech, and views and thoughts by politicians, Journalists and some other people.
They are ignoring that there is a lot of difference when it is applied to any religion and it's values, beleifs, faith, and prophets.
There is no comparision between the cartoons of some political leaders, wars, violence and those related to religion.Who started this first?
Go and fix the roots of the cause that are against muslims and their religion instead of criticising against the violence. When the cartons were first published in Denmark and muslims protested, why did other countries re-publish?
No muslim and muslims newspapers has printed or published in any form about:
(A)the person crucified on the cross, when we believe that was not Jesus as he was ascended to heaven. It is because of this HE will return. No other prophet returns as they died.
(B)the bible and it's contents(graphic,revised, edited facts about Prophets Lut, Moses, Jesus pbut). Many religious priests have doubts about the contents.
If some politicians and Journalists think other way, then we want to see some cartoons of their religion, values and faith in their newspapers around the world.
Please try to get this , That the GOD is the Creator of everything in this universe including the spirits, Angels,and the people including the Jesus pbuh.
God has created all prophets , ADAM to Abraham to Jesus to MUHAMMAD, they all worshipped the same God, they spread the word of same god thru the Holy books revealed on them and they returned to the same GOD.
Why this hate and fight to people of same GOD?
2006-02-12